Terrorism charges color Khan immigrant saga

Until five days ago, the hiring of Izhar Khan as an imam at a fast-growing Muslim mosque seemed like another compelling chapter in a feel-good immigrant success story.

Fresh out of religious school in 2008, he was a bright, deeply spiritual young man, athletic and so good-looking that some called him Mufti McDreamy, a reference to his resemblance to actor Patrick Dempsey. Nor did it hurt that the young cleric was the son of Miami imam Hafiz Muhammed Sher Ali Khan, well known within the U.S. Muslim community as a Quranic scholar.

Soft-spoken and articulate, Khan's sermons urged the congregation to "love your fellow beings and make good out of your life," said Syed Ali, 50, of Weston. He said he chose to attend the Margate mosque partly because it is moderate and "I don't want to hear any fiery speeches."

But the arrest last week of the two imams — along with three other Khan family members — on charges of aiding foreign terrorists in their native Pakistan has shaken the Jamaat Al Mu'mineen mosque in Margate. It has also injected a tragic note into a South Florida saga that began when the first member of the family, an engineer named Shah Wali Khan, came to the U.S. more than 30 years ago.

Hafiz Khan followed his brother to the U.S., and within a few years his wife Fatima, 59, and five of their six children were here, too. Now, only one daughter, Husna, does not have American citizenship or residency, and she has been trying to get visas for herself and her seven children.

The arrests have shocked others in the family, said Izaz Khan, 29, the second youngest son. The other children of Hafiz and Fatima Khan range from 24 to 41.

"To learn that we have been under surveillance for more than three years — well, that's scary," he said.

The Margate imam Izhar Khan, 24, his father and another brother, Irfan Khan, 37, were arrested Saturday on charges they funneled about $45,000 to the Pakistani Taliban through a madrassa or school the elder Khan runs in the Swat Valley. Also charged were Hafiz Khan's daughter Amina, 41, her son Alam Zeb, 29, and another man in Pakistan.

Prosecutors said they monitored money transfers and tapped phone conversations to uncover a conspiracy among some in the family to support a Taliban jihad in Pakistan that included murder and kidnapping.

"Complete fiction," said Izaz Khan, the manager of a Hialeah bakery who lives with his wife and 3-year-old daughter in a tidy apartment in west Miami-Dade County.

Izaz Khan says his brother Izhar is an intensely religious man with no interest in politics. He regularly sends money to support his wife Reshma, 20, who lives in Karachi and is trying to get a visa to live here, said Izaz Khan.

The allegations against Izhar Khan stem from a July 11, 2009, phone call in which his father told him to collect money from a donor in the U.S. that was slated for the mujahedeen, or Islamic warriors, in Pakistan. Five days later, prosecutors said, Izhar Khan "caused $900 to be sent via wire transfer to [his sister] Amina in Pakistan."

The charges against Hafiz Khan are the most detailed. Prosecutors said that in phone recordings the elder imam applauded acts of violence against the Pakistani government, encouraged youths to join rebel fighters, talked about buying guns for the Taliban, and exulted over news in September 2010 that the mujahedeen in Afghanistan had killed seven American soldiers.

Izaz Khan said he does not know what his father said on the wiretapped phone calls. But he described his father as outspoken and sometimes angry, frustrated by delays in the processing of visa requests for family members.

"My father is an emotional man and he expresses opinions," said Khan, "but he is not a hostile, violent man. He has no ties to terrorists."

The first of the immediate family to come to the U.S. was Shah Wali Khan, 72, an engineer who settled in Birmingham, Ala. He petitioned for his brother Hafiz Khan, who came in 1993 with his son Irfan.

Izaz Khan remembers the excitement he felt when his father and brother left for America. "Pakistan is a poor country, and when you know someone is emigrating to the U.S., it's like a blessing," he said. "Anybody would want to come, for a better future, a better life for their kids."

After a few months in Alabama, Hafiz Khan was hired by Miami's oldest mosque, on Northwest 3rd Street near 72nd Avenue. The family moved into a four-bedroom house at 300 Northwest Dr., across the street from the mosque.

After Izaz and Izhar were reunited with their father in Miami in 1994, the boys entered public school. Izaz enrolled in West Miami Middle School, and later graduated from South Miami High School. Izhar went to Seminole Elementary.

Izhar, the youngest Khan child, looked up to his father. "This kid was so respectful of his dad," said Ali, the mosque member. "He used to walk his dad to the mosque [in Miami] holding his hand when he was a child because his dad doesn't see very well."

By his early teens Izhar had decided on a religious life, and went to boarding school at Darul-Uloom Al-Madania in Buffalo, N.Y., a highly respected school where religion and the state public school curriculum are taught.

In Margate, some who know the boyish imam described him as a intriguing amalgam of disparate cultures. Yazid Ali, president of the mosque's board of directors, recalled that Khan came with the highest recommendation of the Buffalo school's principal, who thought the bright, American-raised teacher would be a perfect fit for a congregation with roots in Trinidad, Guyana, Pakistan and Bangladesh.

Izhar Khan speaks unaccented English and loves volleyball, yet lived a monastic life, frequently sleeping at the mosque, memorizing the Quran, praying and ministering to congregants.

He jogged twice a day, and in addition to volleyball and basketball, played on the Inter-Jamaat Softball Cricket League. Other players remarked on his speed as a runner.

Congregants said Izhar Khan urged them to live with compassion and understanding for their neighbors of all religions and beliefs and "keep your heart clean."

Several said that cultural norms are open to misinterpretation by people who don't understand how much deference a son would give to his father, a respected religious scholar. If the father said impolitic things, a son would be unlikely to challenge him, they said.

Malik Khalib, 54, a North Miami Beach resident who prays at the Margate mosque, said the allegations against Izhar Khan do not jibe with the man he knows.

"He just teaches and he prays. He doesn't talk politics, he doesn't talk about attacking the U.S. or anyone," Khalib said. "I don't know about his father but I don't think he [Izhar] did anything wrong … I think he is the good guy."

Minutes after the arrests of his father and two brothers, Izaz Khan said, FBI agents told him he and his wife Kalsoom, 33, had also been under surveillance for years. Their cell phone calls were monitored and they often were watched and followed, agents told them.

"I never sensed anything, but this has left me feeling very guarded," Khan said. "I talk to lots of people every day, here and in Pakistan. But now I am thinking of getting rid of my cell phone altogether. It's not good for your health, anyway."